I tell you, there are some things that come naturally to me, but plot isn't one of them. I get hung up on every project—I get to the point where I realize I really have no idea what people are doing and what choices they're making and why. Which kind of puts a crimp in the storytelling.

It really does. I have all the same problems. But I tell myself if I just write it scene by scene I can do it. Right now, I'm not even going in chronological order. What I did this week was go off on a new tangent using one of my main characters because that tangent interested me and while there are some interesting things there, I'm not sure it'll stay. I actually think it might be a short story playing with the characters and ideas in the book and it may or may not end up in the final version.

Anyway, I'm not going in story order right now, I'm just seizing on the elements of whatever interests me from what I have so far right now and writing scenes based on those and hopefully, somehow it will all come together.

I miss the quicker gratification turnaround of short stories and poems. That's the toughest going of the novel for me. I think that's why I broke out this week and wrote a short story using one of the characters and some of the material. I needed a boost of the small picture to keep the momentum going on the bigger picture!

Writing is seriously hard work though. Just all around tough. Up and down, up and down, but I love it.

I prefer writing in order, but it's just not always possible if I want to keep going. I end up saying, "Well, I think I understand this part, and that other part sounds fun." And then I come back to the hard part when I have to.

One thing that this manuscript suffers from is that it was written over a looong stretch of time, in small chunks. So I'm all over the place, explaining things several times, foreshadowing things more than once, getting into a character's head in ways that are totally unnecessary. It's patchy and fragmented.

Ok I know most of you in here are talking about fiction but I want to rant for a second.

I did an interview with a medium who has a show on The Travel Channel. The interview was about animals and the paranormal. I was really hoping to submit it Q&A style, and it worked great that way! As a reader, way more interesting to hear stories of communicating with animal spirits and whatnot from the person herself. She has crazy stories too--about how the ghost of this dog killed these birds, how her cats play with dead people, good stuff! But my editor doesn't want it Q&A style at all, which makes the whole thing really awkward to write, because I basically have to say "she said this she said that bla bla" because I don't think my editor will be cool with sentences like "The ghost of the dog killed the birds" because she was like "be skeptical!" IT DOESN'T FLOW TO BE SKEPTICAL ABOUT EVERY SINGLE THING IN THE STORY. It's obnoxious to write and it's going to be obnoxious to read. It was a great, engaging Q&A. UGH.

_________________"No one with hair so soft and glossy could ever be bad at anything." - Tofulish

It must suck to do something good and original and have it thwarted by another party, strawberry. I once had an editor remove a colon from one of my poem titles, which I wanted out anyway because I decided it was overkill upon reflection, and clearly they came to the same conclusion, but other than that, they've never deviated from what I submitted. Or, it just gets outright rejected type thing, if what's written is not what they want or in the format or style they want or whatevs. I imagine now I'm doing prose-y things I'm going to have to deal with "rewrite in someone else's vision" type requests. And that's rough! It's tough enough coming up with one's own vision and staying true to that. And also by the time I've submitted something, I'm pretty much done with it and don't want to look at it ever again.

Ok I know most of you in here are talking about fiction but I want to rant for a second.

I did an interview with a medium who has a show on The Travel Channel. The interview was about animals and the paranormal. I was really hoping to submit it Q&A style, and it worked great that way! As a reader, way more interesting to hear stories of communicating with animal spirits and whatnot from the person herself. She has crazy stories too--about how the ghost of this dog killed these birds, how her cats play with dead people, good stuff! But my editor doesn't want it Q&A style at all, which makes the whole thing really awkward to write, because I basically have to say "she said this she said that bla bla" because I don't think my editor will be cool with sentences like "The ghost of the dog killed the birds" because she was like "be skeptical!" IT DOESN'T FLOW TO BE SKEPTICAL ABOUT EVERY SINGLE THING IN THE STORY. It's obnoxious to write and it's going to be obnoxious to read. It was a great, engaging Q&A. UGH.

Yeah, that kind of freelance can get pretty frustrating. Editors sometimes have an understandable reason for why something won't work (and usually it's not for the integrity of the piece, rather it's to fit the publication/voice), but it's totally something you have to (unfortunately) deal with when you're taking those jobs.

You know what, I totally think I can do this!I'm so in love with this topic, as complex as it may be (and I do want to do it justice)... I just have to sit down and do some more reading, and the ideas and cross-references start pouring in. Once or twice I've had to stop on my way to work and sit down on a park bench and scribble some notes to myself. Technically, I have all winter (very loose self-imposed deadline). I guess it's possible to finish the first draft before the snow thaws and the first flowers peek out. ;)

Fun project: 12.500 words.Urgent project: 2 or 3 pages consisting of a bit of an overview and a handful of semi-coherent notes. I need about 10 good pages by Wednesday night. Ugh. Why is this so harrrd? Also, I know that having a cold is no excuse when I'm still fit enough to work on the fun project.